If you have been reading or writing blogs for some time, you may recall the early, heady days of the blogosphere back around 2002-03. Many of us old-school bloggers started back then (I started writing baseball on the web in May 2000, and political blogging in August 2002; RedState wouldn’t be founded until the summer of 2004). The blog world was a small town in those days, where everybody knew everybody, nobody was too big to respond to emails, comments or trackbacks (remember trackbacks?), and for all the fire of political debate, there was a broad-based sense that blogs constituted a community of interest that crossed party lines. Bloggers were glad to see recognition given to blogs and bloggers, engaged in debate across ideological lines, and in some cases informal alliances sprung up, as when blogs on the right and left alike united to drive media interest in ousting Trent Lott as GOP Senate Majority Leader after the 2002 elections over his comments about Strom Thurmond. Sites like The Command Post, which followed the blow-by-blow of the Iraq War, featured contributors from both sides of the political spectrum (myself included, along with others who would later become contributors at RedState). I don’t want to overstate the degree of comity or idealize that era, but there was at least some degree of prevailing ethos that bloggers - amateurs using the internet to gather news and offer citizen punditry - had something in common even when their partisan and ideological interests diverged.

Those days are long, long gone. The coordinated and utterly predictable left-wing assault on CNN’s hiring of RedState leader Erick Erickson over the past few days is merely the latest illustration of how the left side of the blogosphere sees it as its role not to debate conservative bloggers and pundits, but to destroy us and preclude us from being heard. Nobody on our side of the aisle should be under any illusion about the depths of personal enmity harbored towards us by the left blogs, nor the fact that they will spare no effort to go after us personally. These are not good people, they are not our friends, and they mean us harm.

Read More →

All one need do is Google this man’s name and they would see for themselves just how terrible Erickson is…how dangerous he is to America…and just how much his very existence spells DOOM ™ for life as we know it. Quick-hide your women, shield your progeny…Erickson means to eat their livers and swallow their souls.

So one would think, at least, were one so inclined to click through to some of those chicken little stories out there in the nether world of the internets. From Non-Conservatives, to Academics and Liberal Elitists, to self-soiling and unprincipled Professional Politicians and firmly-entrenched good ole boys inside the M(ostly) S(cumbags) M(edia), each of these clowns has a tale of doom about the hell we’re headed for compliments of CNN’s hand basket. Problem is, as with every OTHER decent human being out there trying to do what he thinks is right for himself, his family, and his country, Erickson has pissed off people that disagree with his principles and can’t fathom that his success story grows and is in no small part sustained by his having stood unflinchingly by them.

What does the larger internet and political punditry community (unable to find success and relevance in its own right) decide to do when confronted with such a conundrum? Why, set out to unplug the microphone and drown out the voice…THAT’S what. I’m reminded, in these times, of a sellout of the US Military; an opportunist that made no small profit founding a website and swimming in the dollars of the angst of his minions - you remember Markos Moulitsas, don’t you? Tell me again how it is that Erickson is evil for starting in this business as an unpaid member, doing well enough at it to get hired on to RUN the place, and is now being asked to add his 2 cents worth on a freaking political News program? Oh, yeah, I forgot-it’s because he’s articulate, intelligent, experienced…isn’t an F-bomb flinging chimp for the party line…and Conservative. Did I mention he’s held elective Public office (Republican), too? All bad…ALL a threat to our way of life.

What was I thinking? [#facepalm]

Read More →

You may have noticed that a lot of the people being most virulent about Erick’s CNN gig are folks who don’t have, won’t have, and probably can’t have CNN gigs, or anything like that (the highest that they aspire to is to get on Maddow once) and it’s not unreasonable to assume that this probably bugs them. They’re in the Left-sphere, remember?  Beyond a certain point, there’s no advancement; the activist Left have all the tame blogs that they need, thanks, and they’d prefer to develop the ones that they have than let new ones be created.

But if you’re in that position you don’t want to think about it, I suppose.  I certainly wouldn’t, if I was in their shoes*.  So they’ve told themselves that it’s because they’re too edgy for the MSM.  Too in-your-face.  It’s the price that they pay for keeping it real with their rough language and uncompromising style.  So it’s OK, really; they can’t be blamed for being too hardcore for television.  So when Erick gets a CNN gig, after calling David Souter a goat-f*cking child molester?  Well, they can start screaming about the situation, or they can dispassionately admit to themselves that the real reason why they’re not on TV is because they suck.

You tell me which is a more attractive option to these people.

Moe Lane

PS: Jim Geraghty was thinking along the same lines.  Which you’d already know, if only you subscribed to his Morning Jolt…

Read More →

A week after Christy decided to be a stay at home mom back in December, I got a call from CNN and was asked to meet some people in Atlanta.

Since that time, as you all know, I’ve been on more than a few times.

Well, CNN made an offer I couldn’t refuse. I’ve joined the network. Starting next Monday, you’ll be seeing a lot of me. I’m very excited by the opportunity. Thanks for the prayers and well wishes. This is the path God put me on and it was totally unexpected, but I go where the good Lord leads.

Here’s the full release from CNN:

Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, it was announced today by Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming. Erickson will appear weeknights on John King, USA, which launches Monday, March 22, as well as provide perspective and commentary to other programs across the network.

“I grew up in Dubai and then in rural Louisiana as an obsessive news junkie. CNN was the only place to go for nonstop news,” said Erickson. “Joining CNN is like coming home and being in Atlanta makes the decision right for me and my family.”

“Erick’s a perfect fit for John King, USA, because not only is he an agenda-setter whose words are closely watched in Washington but as a person who still lives in small-town America, Erick is in touch with the very people John hopes to reach,” said Feist. “With Erick’s exceptional knowledge of politics as well as his role as a conservative opinion leader, he will add an important voice to CNN’s ideologically diverse group of political contributors.”

Erick Erickson currently serves as editor-in-chief of RedState.com, a property of Eagle Publishing, Inc. Under his leadership, RedState.com has become the preeminent right of center community online. Prior to leading RedState.com, Erickson practiced law for six years and managed a number of political campaigns, and he currently serves as a member of the Macon, Georgia city council. He studied political science and history earning a bachelor’s degree at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. Erickson also earned his juris doctorate from Mercer’s Walter F. George School of Law.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.

The vast majority of likely voters strongly oppose ObamaCare — and the best word to sum up the emotions and frustrations of those voters who have had to endure the insanity of the health care jihadists is that they hate ObamaCare.

And the two largest subsets of those strongly opposed are independents and senior citizens. Just ask Scott Brown’s campaign staff. He figured out real early that he could just walk into a nursing home and tell the seniors ObamaCare would cut half a trillion from Medicare.

Done. Next nursing home please.

And then, this fall in the mid-term elections, add ridicule to Medicare cuts: Washington thinks you can lower the deficit by spending $2.5 trillion on ObamaCare. Really. Congress says so.

Read More →

Hey Red Staters!

Please check out my new Conservative Blog Report Video in which I profile:

Powerline on The Slaughter Solution.

Gateway Pundit on ObamaCare protests in Missouri.

And the incredibly smart Erick Erickson. You probably already read this.

Finally, have you heard Sean Hannity’s new nickname for Rahm Emmanuel?

Cross posted at Mike LaChance.

Han Solo told Luke Skywalker, “Don’t get cocky.”

Who knew Solo was using coded racist language to attack Luke Skywalker?!?! Surely in all the re-writes to make Star Wars even more awful, George Lucas would have stripped this out. If he was going to make Han Solo not shoot first to improve his image as a militarist, surely he’d not want him to be a racist either.

Unless George Lucas too is a racist.

I apparently am a racist too because I used the word “cocky” to describe Barack Obama’s behavior at the State of the Union address, the same word the left used against George W. Bush for eight years. I guess the left is racist too.

All we needed to do is ask some guy named Zennie62.

The not so very bright readers of Kos want to send Martha Coakley and me to jail.

Why us?

Well, I published the list of union organized phone banks for Coakley on Friday night.

Some genius who probably thinks Joe Stalin was just misunderstood now is convinced I must go to jail. WITH A POLL!!!!

I assume s/he (that covers everything including transgendered I hope) also wants to send Martha Coakley to jail. She did the same thing I did, but offered up even more details, including the phone numbers of the locations and email address of the contact person.

Idiots.

By the way, points off to the Koskidz for misspelling my name.

Erick Everywhere strikes again!

Last week, I pointed out that Erick Erickson was in Charles Blow’s Saturday New York Times opinion and in the Sunday New York Times Magazine story on the Florida GOP primary.

I never read columnist Frank Rich, but the column’s headline “The Great Tea Party Rip-Off” caught my attention. Rich rips Michael Steele and Sarah Palin, and I actually somewhat agree with him to a point.

Even given the low bar set by America’s bogus conversations about race, the short-lived Harry Reid fracas was a most peculiar nonevent.

It was a “nonevent” because the MSM won’t touch it because the story involves a Democrat. Duh.

Eugene Robinson, the liberal black columnist at The Washington Post, wrote that he was “neither shocked nor outraged” at Reid’s less-than-articulate observation that Barack Obama benefited politically from being “light-skinned” and for lacking a “Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.” Besides, Robinson said, Reid’s point was “surely true.”

Let’s be serious, Eugene. If Rush Limbaugh goes on the radio this week and calls you a Negro, you’ll lynch him. I’m a member of the American Dialect Society. It’s called AAVE (African-American Vernacular English). No one I know has used “Negro” in over 30 years. Harry Reid is not an entertainer–he’s the leader of the Senate. So yeah, it is kind of a big deal.

President Obama immediately granted Reid absolution

It certainly was immediate. If it was a terrorist incident, Obama would still be playing golf.

The true prime mover in this story was not a book publicist but Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican Party and by far the loudest and most prominent Beltway figure demanding that Reid resign as Senate majority leader as punishment for his “racism.”
(…)
On Jan. 10 he stormed “Fox News Sunday” and “Meet the Press” to demand Reid’s head. There has been hardly a mention of Steele’s sins since. He can laugh all the way to the bank.

I’ll grant Rich’s argument that not everyone is a fan of Michael Steele. But nothing has stopped critics from mentioning his “sins.”

Rich then turns to fellow “buckraker” (gotta add that to my “Political Glossary,” although i see my colleague at Word Spy beat me to it) Sarah Palin, pointing out that she’s gone for the big bucks with her book and her new Fox News gig.

She recently signed on as a speaker for the first Tea Party Convention, scheduled next month in Nashville — even though she had turned down a speaking invitation from the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, the traditional meet-and-greet for the right. The conservative conference doesn’t pay. The Tea Party Convention does. A blogger at Nashville Scene reported that Palin’s price for the event was $120,000.

But what does Erick Erickson say?

Last week a prominent right-wing blogger, Erick Erickson of RedState.com, finally figured out that the Tea Party Convention “smells scammy,” likening it to one of those Nigerian e-mails promising untold millions. Such rumbling about the movement’s being co-opted by hucksters may explain why Palin used her first paid appearance at Fox last Tuesday to tell Bill O’Reilly that she would recycle her own tea party profits in political contributions. But Erickson had it right: the tea party movement is being exploited — and not just by marketers, lobbyists, political consultants and corporate interests but by the Republican Party, as exemplified by Palin and Steele, its most prominent leaders.

What’s your final point, Frank?

The right has a point when it says that the Senate health care votes of Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana were bought with pork. But at least their constituents can share the pigout. Hustlers like Steele and Palin take the money and run.

Memo to Frank: Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu were bribed with the people’s money. Steele and Palin make money from people who desire to purchase their products–which no one is forced by law to buy.

I do have questions with certain moves by Michael Steele (writing a book, etc.) and Sarah Palin (Nashville Tea Party Convention, Fox News gig), but neither is an elected official and neither involves taxpayer money.

I have no idea why the column was titled “The Great Tea Party Rip-Off.” Only a small portion of the column was about this particular Nashville tea party. Certainly, all tea parties are not “rip-offs.” A better title would have been: “Steele & Palin–They’re Republican and I hate them” by Frank Rich.

Take your bets for next Sunday’s New York Times “Erick Erickson” sighting–Maureen Dowd, Nicholas Kristof or Thomas Friedman?

I read the NY Times for free online so you don’t have to. Two items are of interest today.

Charles Blow writes a Saturday column that usually blows. He attacks Republicans like a Johnny One-Note. This is from today’s column:

Op-Ed Columnist
G.O.P. Grief and Grieving
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: January 8, 2010
The attack on the Republican establishment by the tea party folks grabs the gaze like a really bad horror flick — some version of “Hee Haw” meets “28 Days Later.” It’s fascinating.

See, I didn’t call them teabaggers! I said they’re “Hee Haw” hicks! Aren’t I original? I’m the great Charles Blow!

Anyone who says that this is the dawn of a new age of conservatism is engaging in wishful thinking on a delusional scale.

So we’re all going to become progressives, Charles?

It is likely that Republicans will pick up Congressional seats in November partly because of the enthusiasm of this conservative fringe, democratic apathy and historical trends. But make no mistake: This is not 1994.

Unless Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts.

Erick Erickson, the incendiary editor of the popular conservative blog RedState, appeared on “The Colbert Report” on Monday and said that “no one really knows what a Republican is anymore.”

Split hairs about labels if you must, but the Republican brand already has begun a slow slide into obscurity. And turning further right only hastens its demise. Quiet as it’s kept, many in the party know this. That, alas, is called acceptance.

Incendiary editor? Watch that arsonist trait, Erick!

The Republicans will pick up a few seats, but will slide into obscurity? Does that make any sense? Does Charles Blow ever make any sense? Hey Blow, have you checked Obama’s approval numbers lately?

The New York Times Magazine section has a cover photo of Marco Rubio and brings us this:

The First Senator From the Tea Party?
By MARK LEIBOVICH
2010 will be a year of Republican civil war, and Florida is where the fighting is now fiercest.

They can only hope for a civil war.

Lebovich is an established NYT hack. (Full disclosure: He co-authored a piece “Buzzwords of 2009″ with Grant Barrett, my webmaster and colleague.) Who else can write like this:

Crist, who is 53, is a compact and sunbaked raisin of a man with a shock of white hair, a beak nose and dark Mediterranean eyes.

Would any Democrat, ever, be a “sunbaked raisin”?

Rubio, who has been dominating straw polls of conservative advocates across Florida while pulling even in real ones, is Hispanic, uses Twitter and listens to Snoop Dogg — not your grandmother’s Republican, in other words.

Listens to Snoop Dogg? I doubt that. Not my grandmother’s Republican? Yes, my grandmother didn’t use Twitter–no one’s grandmother used Twitter. A California grandma who voted for Ronald Reagan wouldn’t recognize Rubio?

Florida became “a hill to die on for conservatives,” declared the blogger and right-wing activist Erick Erickson, of RedState.com. “This primary has become a lot more than just a Senate race in some ways,” Erickson told me. “There is a lot riding on Marco Rubio.”

Erick Erickson = Everywhere. What’s next for Erick Erickson? The Food Network?

When I returned to Florida a few weeks later, Crist was enduring a series of small nicks. Scott Rothstein, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer who is one of Crist’s friends and donors, had been arrested on federal charges of operating a $1.2 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. A few days before I arrived, it was reported that callers to Florida’s KidCare hot line were being mistakenly redirected to a sex-chat line (“Hey there, sexy guy”). I mentioned this to Crist — in the vein of, “Governor, you can’t buy a break” — and he winced.

“It’s all right,” he said, taking a deep breath. “It will work out.”

Small nicks?

Crist told me that two of the senators he most admires are John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who have reputations for forging bipartisan alliances — and who have drawn their share of hellfire from conservative purists.

Wince.

COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC FINAL NOTE:
I’ve been telling everyone for a month now that University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy would have the game of his life in the national championship. He lived for this. He simply would not let Texas lose to Alabama.

There were quite a few freebie points from a freshman quarterback, but Alabama wasn’t able to throw on Texas at all. Texas did a reasonable job containing the run. If McCoy had been healthy all game, I believe that Texas would have won.

SEC fans, don’t rejoice in something like this.

If Tony Romo goes down in the first quarter of the playoff game today, I’m gonna give up watching football.